61 Comments

1. Professor Guvinoff:

What’s the difference between a code of political correctness and a blueprint for fascism? Precious little!

As a 62 years old tea party attendant, I was surprised to find myself involved in a protest event, which I had never done ever before, and I found myself in the company of other folks also experiencing this unexpected epiphany.

So, here we are, conservatives building a movement from the bottom, and finding out about what it’s like to be a rebel, what a turn of fate! In this article, Andrew Klavan advocacy evokes the recourse to all the classical tools of subversion, except that Andrew Klavan is everything Saul Alinsky was not!

The election of someone like Mr. Obama could be the reflection of a diffuse collective wish to take a vacation from reality on the part of people who don’t want to be bothered with the threats facing all of us. The challenge to the conservatives may well be “How do you open the eyes of those who would rather not see?”

I agree with Mr. Klavan, it will take a lot of talent and a lot of effort.

Apr 28, 2009 - 9:14 am 2. Vinny Vidivici:

Andrew:

Another great piece. You’re becoming a habit.

Yes, it seems our society’s mechanisms of accredation and legitimacy — Nobels, Oscars, media opinion-shapers, even higher education — have been commandeered to celebrate, promote and reward progressive ideas and the progressive political agenda.

Some of the same mechanisms are also used as gatekeepers to delegitimize (or demonize) politically unfashionable groups and individuals, through the tone or absence of news coverage or the ritualized ridicule of comedians, as has been the case with the Tea Parties and Sarah Palin.

It took decades to get this way, so you are correct in that the pushback and counterbalance will be a long and difficult process.

Apr 28, 2009 - 9:50 am 3. Gary Graham:

Andrew — You so articulately stated the problem…and more, you eloquently offered our answer to it. It is the culture that is the prize. The confidence we once had in our numbers has been shaken, and now me must get active. Vigilance and perseverance will win this race. And Faith. the very life of our nation is at stake, and I applaud your passion, sir.
–Gg

Apr 28, 2009 - 10:11 am 4. PBR: Klavan on a ‘New American Culture’ « Acton Institute PowerBlog:

[...] Andrew Klavan, picking up on a theme he addressed at Heritage Resource Bank, posted an essay titled “Toward A New American Culture” on his Pajamas Media blog, Klavan on the Culture. Excerpt: We need to build a New American [...]

Apr 28, 2009 - 11:14 am 5. Rich Raphael:

I will make sure your newest book finds its way into my son’s reading list; though being only three it will be a few years before he’s mature enough for such subject matter.

Yes, taking our culture and country back is going to be a long battle, and once we do, we and our children will need to remain vigilante in order to keep things from falling so far again. While my profession (engineering) is far from that of art and expression, I do what I can when working with young up and commers from the local film school on independant films that I get involved with here in West MI; making sure that, whatever their ideology (and yes they are constantly being indoctrinated to the approved themes of the left) that they know there are time tested truths that have been left out and that they are not getting the whole story.

We all need to do what we can, especially those of us, like me, that are not in the entertainment and arts fields. If art imitates life, we are the ones who need to give it a life to imitate.

Apr 28, 2009 - 11:28 am 6. Kyle:

I will comment via Professor Guvinoff’s observation:

“The election of someone like Mr. Obama could be the reflection of a diffuse collective wish to take a vacation from reality on the part of people who don’t want to be bothered with the threats facing all of us.”

I hypothesize that the left’s post-structuralism, post-modernism, cultural relativism, subjectivism and solipsism is directly caused by America’s material prosperity since World War II and that the left is still riding out the communism that caught hold because of the (government exacerbated) shock to the economy during the Great Depression. To the left, the pseudo-fascist FDR “saved” the people from the horrible capitalist economy – although FDR did everything to strangle it and ran unemployment figures approaching 20% through his time in office up to the second year of America’s participation in WWII. More directly and succinctly, we are a “victim of our own success” much like the Roman Empire during its descent into imperial despotism and decay. The people have become passive due to their “circenses” and now they are clamoring for “panem.”

What we need is a media that emphasizes material, physical reality without becoming materialistic. What we need are heroes that overcome true hardship, who create, invent, and unleash their spirit in the face of tyranny and dictatorship. We need movies that make clear the horrors of socialism and communism, as there are precious few of them. We need the real record of Soviet spying in the U.S. set straight, rather than the dribbling ad infinitum whining about “McCarthyism” (who, though misguided, was right on at least a few of his accusations). We have the easy paeans, such as to the veterans of World War II, down – but what about Korea? Vietnam? After all, what happened after the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam? Hundreds of thousands of refugees and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. There is so much content there. Directors, producers, investors, let’s get to it.

Apr 28, 2009 - 12:33 pm 7. tomthepiper's son:

Andrew, I admire your courage and I love your work. All your articles are deeply intelligent and articulate.

I am often in despair at the shoddy and low-grade productions that pass for ‘works of the imagination’ in our culture at present. I wonder if this flood of debris can ever be stopped, if anything worthwhile can be put in its place.

The Left with its awards, grants etc. is simply a flood of money purchasing artists and writers by the bushel.

On another level young people and perhaps all of us have learned to fear what can only be called the Evil Eye, the Derakous, the hostile and censorious gaze from the powerful who check every public production for political correctess. Which is in reality social correctness since what people fear is not so much actual opposition to non-idealogical work but the loss of friends and social position if they cross any number of ill-defined and vague boundaries.

But I truly believe that one of the deepest core values of homo sapiens sapiens is courage. I don’t think it can be eradicated from our nature. I know people respond to displays of true courage in others even when they themselves hesitate, fudge, back away, do not write down that thought. There is some kind of similarity between courage and a banner whipping in the wind, held up fearlessly.

Apr 28, 2009 - 1:01 pm 8. Daeron Bannockburn:

Mr. Klavan, you’ve touched on a point that few conservatives have dared come to grips with: we have an obligation to be talented, engaging and even at times entertaining in addition to being correct in our cultural viewpoints.

Through our anemic contributions to the fields of art, literature, and mainstream entertainment, we have essentially ceded the cultural field, as we are ceding the field of political ideas, allowing people to be duped by the soft sell of sophism. Now, with the odds stacked against us, we have to “recreate” culture from the ground up.

Thank you for this. I hope to share this with others.

Apr 28, 2009 - 1:08 pm 9. Chris from Lakeland:

I honestly believe people, including Andrew Klavan, are ignoring the commercial aspect. I am actually encouraged in this opinion by the extent to which my opinion is ridiculed, if voiced.

I suspect that commecial success, as measured by total numbers, including sales outside of the US, is driving what would otherwise appear to be a purely ideolgic behavior. Check for yourselves. See the huge numbers being realized overseas by products that are failing in the US market, then judge whether or not this is political ideology or pressure from commercial backers that want products that sell well, overseas.

I agree with some of what Klavan says, but I believe that he, and others, are ignoring a market force that is impacting content.

Apr 28, 2009 - 1:45 pm 10. BPT (Australia):

I agree. The media elites are more than unbalanced. They are openly hostile to the “incorrect” views and the “incorrect people.” Even the famous Sarah Palin “interview” looked more like a hostage situation, than a get-to-know-you session. I’m glad you’re standing up to the bullies.

Apr 28, 2009 - 2:26 pm 11. Do we avoid or engage or create an alternative culture? (or) Die Kulturfrage at Live the Trinity:

[...] the whole thing here at Pajamas Media. You do not have to [...]

Apr 28, 2009 - 3:15 pm 12. John Reagh:

I just ordered the DVD of “Taking Chance.” (full price!)We have to vote with our dollars.

Apr 28, 2009 - 4:00 pm 13. Joe Ferguson:

Outstanding. And very much to the point, Andrew Klavan.

It may not be such a wide gulf…from the progressive, statist religion now in vogue to building a culture that Klavan describes. Much depends on whether we can charge the hearts of the young. The weepy, effete slop now being fed them via our educational system, and the active evil injected in their brains by some music and video “artists” might pale if young people are given great alternatives — ones that galvanize them with self-reliance, heroism, truth, and rebellion against those toadies of the state and enemies of the people Klavan describes.

I say maybe not such a wide gulf because these are American kids — hopefully independence is imbedded in their genes. If so, the rapid growth of the state and the loss of liberty it brings should soon rankle. Kudos to Klavan for his new book for young readers and the beginning the series. Let’s get busy, the rest of us, making more of the same, in all media, for kids and adults, too.

Apr 28, 2009 - 4:10 pm 14. SeanLA:

1. Professor Guvinoff:
ha ha doc time to get it on! time to speak out against the madness!
`hostility to the American ideal’ what would be a word for this type of person, people who constantly trash the history and ideals of the USA? They themselves are Americans filled with the self loathing taught them in schools. What do we call this person? One who thinks our history is tragic? who learn in school of 400 years of slavery? (!!! I never knew the us was that founded in 1609 !!!) and then you say, `oh, I didn’t know there were slaves at Jonestown, they don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! What do you call these people who trash Jefferson, saying, `Please don’t quote a slave owner to me’
What do you call these people, whats a word for them?

Apr 28, 2009 - 5:41 pm 15. Stergeye:

Andrew,
Thanks for issuing the call to action. The self-annointed high priests of culture are so busy patting each other on the back for their “courage” in “speaking truth to power” that they’ve no time to notice that we “barbarians” are swarming at the gate.

Such has been the fate of all dynasties who’ve become so insulated from the roots of the culture which nurtured them as to treat it with disdain. In the absence of inspiration, they can only continue to “push the envelope” even when there is no envelope to push anymore.

There is a hunger out here for art and entertainment that really touches the best part of our commmon humanity. Artists who tap into it will find a vast market awaits them.

Apr 28, 2009 - 5:43 pm 16. Kyle:

SeanLA: “What do you call these people who trash Jefferson, saying, `Please don’t quote a slave owner to me’
What do you call these people, whats a word for them?”

Jefferson actually would have preferred slavery to be abolished within two generations of the ratification of the Constitution, but the best they could get was a halt to slave importation with the Southern colonies.

Apr 28, 2009 - 6:11 pm 17. The Greenroom » Forum Archive » Needed: A New Culture:

[...] conservative who works in the entertainment industry. He also writes a column at Pajamas Media, and his latest is thought provoking. We need to build a New American Culture, and turn our backs on the culture of the state. We need to [...]

Apr 28, 2009 - 6:15 pm 18. SeanLA:

16. Kyle:
Hi Kyle. Nevertheless, people learn in school, Hamilton HS in LA to be exact, that everything Thomas Jefferson wrote and said should be considered within the fact that he was a slave owner. And that these are the thoughts and words of someone who owned and (forcibly) had children with slaves. If you quote Jefferson to someone who went to school at Hamilton High in LA, they will say: But remember, those are the words of a slave owner.

What is the word for someone who teaches this, that our country was founded by bad people and our history is of that, and as children in this country they have to learn to work against that, that the `founding fathers’ were wrong. What can you call these revisionist, relativist, social engineering people? communist, fascist, socialist, marxist, etc. these are all played out words that only make the speaker look foolish. Is there a word that is contemporary that we can tag the people Andrew is writing about with? Statist?

Apr 28, 2009 - 6:37 pm 19. Gerry Jackson:

Two points need to be stressed:

1. The media are not merely biased they are deeply bigoted.

2. The media are now the enemmies of liberty

Apr 28, 2009 - 6:45 pm 20. Stacy:

Andrew, Thank goodness someone has finally articulated the way forward. We need to embrace our culture. Our real culture, not the banal, pathetic shadow of a culture manufactured by Hollywood.

I’m going over to amazon now to buy one of your books.

Thanks again.

Apr 28, 2009 - 7:19 pm 21. Chris in N.Y.:

Above, off the top of his head, Kyle rattles off a few thematic areas which the anti-American cultural establishment won’t touch: Soviet espionage in the 20th Century; life under Communism during the Cold War; the aftermath of Vietnam in Asia; the parallels between present-day America and a declining Rome. He has only scratched the surface, but I believe that with sufficient talent and organization, you could put Hollywood and the publishing establishment out of business within five years just by effectively mining only those four “verboten” areas for dramatic/literary content.

Think about the existential threat that Mel Gibson’s PASSION OF THE CHRIST represented to the Hollywood ideologues. Every ticket sold for PASSION was a ticket not sold by them, and every screen showing PASSION was a screen not available to them. How many times would that success need to be multiplied, and for how long would it need to be sustained before “Hollywood” could no longer compete? Five times/one year? Ten times/three years?

Bottom line, given the incredible richness of the themes on the verboten list, I don’t think it would take very much.

Apr 28, 2009 - 8:38 pm 22. Daniel:

I’m in, and here’s my contribution.

Individualism is not the only pillar of America. Alone, it falls into political anarchy and selfishness. In our era, individualism has collapsed into postmodern egotism. In postmodernism, all things originate in the self. After Nietzsche, the self is all that’s left of god. Too much individualism, without anything above it, only turns the individual into a self-made god. Individualism is not the sole answer. The Republic, citizenship, duty, responsibilty, honor- these are the ideas we need to restore American political culture. Hell it’s not only American culture, these are the basic concepts of civilization. And restore philosophy (and the teaching of philosophy) as the search for the good, true, and beautiful. Too many people are terrified to beautiful art beautiful, a good argument good, and a true thing true — well I’m about to start ranting…

To restore American culture, just restore civilization. Humans are not gods and not beasts, like the postmoderns portray, but flawed things struggling to do right before they die.

Apr 28, 2009 - 8:39 pm 23. vannes:

That culture already exists in things like genera fiction. The great historian Bernard Devoto’s work revolved around the idea that the american imagination was tied to westward exploration and expansion. This is evident in our continued love of westerns and scifi (techie westerns). There is no better measure of how warped our MSM culture has become than to witness the endless praise of the writers locked in a garret in LA or NYC while ignoring those who explore the wider american landscape who happen to be located in Montana or Texas or Nebraska.

Apr 28, 2009 - 8:58 pm 24. Howard Roark:

Klavan,
you haven’t been a regular read of mine, although that’s about to change. In this case, though, I must disagree with your prescription.

What we need is not a new culture. What we need is to brush the rust off of the old one, and accord it the respect that it deserves.

Twofold.
First, the kind of cultural values that you’re talking about evolve over time, and reflect (obviously) the society that gave them rise. You seem to be asking that an entirely new set of cultural values be built from whole cloth. I’m not sure that’s possible, but I’m quite sure it’s not a good idea. You would encourage fragmentation of whatever continuity remains to us. Unless the new cultural values are derived from the current set, there is no continuity with either cultural or societal history. I can’t see such a value-set being taken up in any fashion other than piecemeal.

Second. The traditional cultural values are alive and well. Anyone doubting this needs to watch Taking Chance, the Marines’ reception of GW in Iraq, and look at the Tparty turnout #’s. The challenge is to return them to popular consciousness. It’s a question of role models. Role models for young people no longer epitomize Integrity and Achievement (The Birkenhead, Horatius, Buckley), but mindless rebellion and grievance (Einhorn, Sheehan, Corrie). The traditional values of a civilized culture are epitomized as much as ever they were, just not advertised as willingly. That is the essence of the challenge: returning those values to widespread acknowledgement and approval. We would keep the continuity with Western History, the contextural referents, and the established foundation from which to proclaim and defend.

On a tangential note, I think that you and Bill Whittle may form two elements of a whole. Whittle has the sense of the Majesty, the Glory, and the Terrible Beauty of Western History, and he rings it like the Gods’ own bell.
You seem to have a better sense of the Rough’n tumble of the culture wars, and a much better grasp of the needs of the NOW.

I bet it would be an interesting collaboration.

Apr 28, 2009 - 8:58 pm 25. frankg:

Kyle at 18:

I think Jefferson was the main writer of the Declaration of Independence. I wouldn’t dismiss that document for Jefferson’s wrongs. Its one thing to acknowledge the faults our founding fathers had. To use those faults to tear them down, perhaps indirectly what they provided us to keep freedom, I’m tempted to refer to such people as the “unfounding fathers”. If people think Jefferson was so bad, tell them to read the Declaration of Independence.
As my history is rusty, you may want to verify these facts, though.

Apr 29, 2009 - 2:14 am 26. John V:

Andrew,
Amen. As writer/filmmaker who also happens to be a conservative, I could not agree more. As the father of five sons (ages 5-14)who love God and country, I picked up a copy of your new book assuming that they might see a little of themselves in Charlie West. So far, my assumptions were dead on. My 13 year old can’t wait for the next in the series and the 14 and 10 year old are currently fighting over this one now. I’m sorry that you’ll only get one sale out of this bunch, but take consolation in the fact that you have probably earned fans for life. I’m just wrapping a feature, so I have to ask (at the risk of sounding like some Hollywood a-hole)– has it been optioned yet?

Apr 29, 2009 - 4:44 am 27. Rich O:

Great article. While I am a baby boomer, I have always looked at my generation as the cause of most of the problems now facing us. It seems that since we won WW II, the next generation (baby boomers) had to apologize to the world for our success. To the point that they will cause the U.S. to fail, to prove their point. Our generation is not the first to go through this. The next generation after WW I seems to have had their problems also. The roaring Twenty’s was all about overindulgence, greed and it is all about me type of living. Then came the Great Depression. Sound familiar?

Apr 29, 2009 - 5:16 am 28. Pajamas Media » Toward a New American Culture:

[...] the entire article here [...]

Apr 29, 2009 - 6:50 am 29. t.g.:

I don’t think it requires some coordinated action. The market will do it all: 250.000 tea party attendees, the crowd watching them on fox. That’s a powerful market.

It’ll all turn out for good, naturally.

Apr 29, 2009 - 7:33 am 30. Paul from Hamburg:

The coverage of the tea parties did have one positive effect. It is now incredibly easy to separate the serious journalists and commentators from the Democratic shills: Anyone who said “tea bag” can’t be considered a journalist.

Apr 29, 2009 - 7:50 am 31. Phoenix48:

13. Joe Ferguson: ‘It may not be such a wide gulf…from the progressive, statist religion now in vogue to building a culture that Klavan describes….’

I agree completly. The Boomer generations dominance of first Academia, then the post Vietnam/Watergate conquest of the MSM, and ultimately Publishing,Film & TV hasn’t happened in some amber encrusted vacuum.

Folks like Accuracy in Media & David Horowitz have had a profound effect challenging the facist allegience to leftism in Academia. Fox News has completely altered the MSM landscape. The home schooling movement as well as the charter schools have put a dent in public schools monopoly.

There is a genuinely growing conserative movement within colleges to re-introduce the kinds of reforms Horowitz has been clamoring for – partly due to private funding demands as well as the costs extorted by the overpaid professors who’ve abused tenure with their one-sided politics for a generation.

I’m fifty & a survivor of the writing program at Kent State – having spent stints in the late 80’s & early 90’s. That cottage minor was largly exclusively A GAY PROGRAM – run by and for homosexuals. It’s most notable grad to date is David Sedaris.

In the past twenty years – we have seen the rise of such estimable publishers as Regnery – and influencial publications such as The Weekly Standard in addition to National Review. The Conservative Book Club is no slouch -they don’t quite compare with Oprah for a shout out on sales but still, there are A LOT of options beyond just Rush, O’Reily, and Ann Coulter.

My point is Andrew you are spot on, and perhaps, unlike the closeted conservatives hiding in plain sight in Hollywood struggling to survive, we may well be on are way to recapturing our culture. And yes Joe – it is in our DNA.

Apr 29, 2009 - 9:18 am 32. Laura:

I have come to the point in my life where I no longer go to movies or watch television, other than the select few programs. I get my news from Fox. I listed to talk radio. I no longer engage in debate with liberals or befriend them. I am doing whatever I can to boycott liberal bias wherever I encounter it.

Apr 29, 2009 - 10:09 am 33. stuart Williamson:

Can we please face up to the truth that we are not faced with the rise of a “leftist” culture, We are confronted with flat-out doctrinaire SOCIALISM, raw in tooth and claw, hell-bent on destroying our free enterprise, free-thinking culture. Anyone who can’t see that Alinsky radicals have taken over the White House has lost all objectivity.

The place to start is to drop the wimpy euphemisms that the socialists have carefully cultivated to obscure their agenda. The term “left”, in all its hyphenated variations is not only meaningless but serves to lull conserves into minimizing the threat they pose. To use “liberal” for those like Obama, Axelrod and the Chicago Alinsky coterie is like calling grizzlies “teddy bears”. These are fierce, aggressive, 24/7 propagandists, while we sit around worrying about “leftward creep”.

the Socialist Party of he U.S.A.’s membership is at the lowest level in its 100 year history, while the actual number of their faith has risen to millions, all calling themselves “centrist Democrats”,

In the past mid-century the” right-wing” had some good scare words for the Stalinists who were infiltrating government disguised as “union activists”. They were called, rightly, “Commies” and “Pinkos” and, most effectively REDS. Now the Reds have adopted the term BLUES and foisted the Red onto the flyover states, the Red, White and Blues peple in the nation. You think it wasn’t calculated, that it just happened? Why do we let them get away with it? We don’t want to offend them?

Now we have become so neutered, so politically correct that we don’t have the guts, even faced with economic disaster, to use such offensive language. How Red-Neck to call somebody a “Commie” or a “Stalinist”, or – horrors – a RED.

Words count. Using softball euphemisms is betraying your own cause, playing into their hands. Their bloggers and the MSM use the vilest kind of words. Pat a Grizzly and you’ll lose your arm, or life.Those Commie Pinkos will scream “SMEA and crank up the vile invective but they’ll do that anyway as resistance stiffens.

This is no Tea Party. Call those whose goal is to turn us into serfs what they are: REDS! Flaming doctrinaire SOCIALISTS.

Articles like this one are for pussycats.

Apr 29, 2009 - 10:23 am 34. Jack P:

>b>The best defense is a good offense.
The Right is starting to build positively on our own cultural foundations.

The entrenched leftist machinery is well into it’s failure. Yesterday I saw an article about the massive decline in leftist newspaper readership and ad revenues, and it is no secret that many of them are dead or dying. The leftists seem to be growing tired of being deceived and exploited.

Of course the leftist DNC government is in it’s typical panic mode calling for a pile of tax money to toss to them so they can continue propagandizing for their cause, and they probably will, but the federal teat is starting to run drier these days.

Just today over at Media bistro there is a report on how the right leaning Fox Network is bootstomping the leftist MSNBC and some other irrelevant left cable channel into the ground.

Their selective storytelling and their “shut up” retorts have lost all semblance of appeal to all but the most unenlightened and self-blinded leftist conscripts, and the non-sleeping populace is walking away.

IF the right doesn’t build a haven for thm to go to, they will wander back. It is time to build the Right society. No more defense, no more waiting. Can we rescue the exploited, duped leftist hoardes from their learned ignorance and falsely agitated pathos?

Yes WE can!

Apr 29, 2009 - 10:38 am 35. jonkon:

In defense of the Hayes Office, banning foul language, violence, and obscenity forces producers to rely upon dialog, plot, and character development. Unfortunately this requires actual talent, which modern Hollywood sorely lacks. At least Hollywood is not the only game available. On a business trip to India I became a fan of Bollywood movies, particularly the comedies of David Dhawan.

Apr 29, 2009 - 10:40 am 36. COL.SEBASTIAN MORAN:

HOWARD ROARK
#24
Sir, yours was an excellent post – extraordinarily linear in thought and points well made.
Many thanks…
Semper Fi

Apr 29, 2009 - 10:44 am 37. Dhuka:

Sir, an excellent post! The only artistic areas today in which one can openly be a conservative are science fiction, thriller fiction, and country and western music.

The socialists own the rest of culture. Sadly.

Apr 29, 2009 - 11:13 am 38. Moogie:

I recently wrote my own little blog about the difference between the American culture of freedom and the European culture of serfdom. Liberals may not realize it, and might not even acknowledge it, but they are part of the American Freedom Culture, whether they want to be or not.

We haven’t lived under the rule of a despot or a tyrant, nor have we been governed by a king or a queen. Our own “class” system is very different from the traditonal class systems that existed in Europe for hundreds of years. This country was founded by people who didn’t want to be serfs any longer. While many of our ancestors were being the maverick and moving westward, their ancestors stayed in the comfort of their slavery/serfdom. The modern conservative is that maverick.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the modern liberal today is really just a throwback to the serf/slave of yesterday. And they don’t even know it.

The American culture is completely unique among all nations, and it’s a culture worth saving. Liberals are a part of this culture, and they need to be reminded of that.

Great article and call to “arts” (haha) Andrew!

Apr 29, 2009 - 11:20 am 39. PetroniusMaximus:

This concept, the “culture of the state” needs to be objectified and portrayed as an oppressive agent – i.e. “State Culture”, “Federal Culture” or “American Imperial Culture”. It needs to be portrayed as a “top down”, monolithic, inflexible and intolerant of alternative cultures.

Christian, Judeo-Christian or Conservative culture can then be portrayed as the underdog, revolutionary, “freedom fighter”, rebel culture.

Apr 29, 2009 - 11:35 am 40. truepeers:

What do you say to someone who won’t listen to anything from Jefferson, a slave owner?

-Well you first point out that his world view is also founded on forms of slavery and tyranny. How to do this? See, for example: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3880

And then you point out that while Jefferson emerged from a world in which slavery, in one form or another, was almost universal, he at least was beginning to envision a future without it.

Apr 29, 2009 - 11:42 am 41. Roderick Reilly:

Chris from Lakeland has a point regarding overseas sales propping up the America-hostile aspect of American media. But that’s only part of why the general, legacy media feel they can get away with their behavior. The other reason is a near monopoly of the traditional media fields. And don’t be surprised if “new media” gets swallowed up by the left. Web monsters like Google and Wikipedia are dominated by a globalist/leftist mindset, and Huffingtonpost is way bigger than HotAir.

TV and movie offerings are actually more nuanced and complex than one would think, what with the “left-dominated” mantra. There are many popular network shows whose plotlines and worldviews are not uniformy “leftist,” not by a long shot. I also noticed that you almost never see an abortion happening on network TV. The end result of an inconvenient pregnancy on any network TV show reads more like what a traditional mindset would want.

Still a lot of room to maneuver in entertainment media.

Apr 29, 2009 - 1:50 pm 42. kestrel:

This is a very good piece, Mr. Klaven. It makes me think of the architect, Le Corbusier, and his seminal work “Toward a (New) Architecture” in that it is a call to purpose. Yes, indeed, a path through the memes can be forged, and there is ample energy. I applaud your effort with the new book, and intend to push myself to make worthy and impacting structures that glorify freedom and self-reliance.

Apr 29, 2009 - 1:55 pm 43. Sgt. Mom:

“There is no better measure of how warped our MSM culture has become than to witness the endless praise of the writers locked in a garret in LA or NYC while ignoring those who explore the wider American landscape who happen to be located in Montana or Texas or Nebraska.”

Amen to that – of course I am a little biased, being a writer of historical novels, set on the 19th century frontier. I spent a couple of years, submitting my manuscripts to agencies and publishers in New York, to no avail. (And it’s not that I suck as a writer, either – those few who did respond to query letter and read them entire, or the first five chapters or so all said I was an excellent writer… it’s just that… er, well, they didn’t feel any passion for my stuff. Didn’t think it was marketable, etc, etc, best of luck in your future endeavors…)
So, it’s passing strange and sort of indicative of the split between the established media and the insurgency by bloggers and indy publishers and Tea Partiers and all. My books are actually doing pretty well, in that regional market where they were set, among readers who prefer something original, something which even acknowledges what a grand and heroic experiment the American democracy was, and the decency and courage of our ancestors (actual and metaphorical). Yes, we have to do an end-run around the Establishment Media – isn’t it fun, being a rebel?

Apr 29, 2009 - 3:18 pm 44. Marie Claude:

Moogie,

“I recently wrote my own little blog about the difference between the American culture of freedom and the European culture of serfdom.”

I am interested to read it (I’m not kidding), I suppose you’re an adept of Friedrich Hayek

Apr 29, 2009 - 4:06 pm 45. Eric:

Can we start with this as a movie idea:

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2006/12/twelfth-viking.html

Europe and the West in general need a little reminder about who we are and the heroes of our past that got us here.

Apr 29, 2009 - 4:41 pm 46. steveg:

So in 50 years, the cultural marxist have established a stranglehold on our society, and we are now considered social outcast? I stopped watching any awards show years ago (Smug leftist awarding smug leftist had become tiresome) when I became bright enough to see through the glitz. It bothers me that even mainstream actor/directors like Tom Hanks and Ron Howard have become agenda driven.

We are dealing with a Bohemian cult encompassing Hollywood, academia, and the entrenched media, and anyone brave enough to take them on is generally attacked. Unfortunately, we are in the late battles of a culture war and are losing badly. If you are conservative, or even a moderate you should be concerned for your childrens future.

It would appear the American left has very much infiltrated the business world also. Certainly not small business, I am referring to GE, GM, Ford, etc.. The Obama/GE connection reminds me of a James Bond movie where together they plan to remake the world, and NBC Universal is Obama’s propaganda arm. Scary stuff.

Apr 29, 2009 - 6:32 pm 47. posterior_sling:

Right-Wing College Group Riles Students on Campuses Nationwide

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518378,00.html

Already being tagged as a hate group, YWC is a group I hope makes it off the ground.

The oppo’s philo must be: fight hate with hate without regard to the fact that we hated first.

Gimme a Y! Gimme a W! Gimme a C! What’s that spell?! Youth for Western Civilization!

Go YWC! Go!

Apr 29, 2009 - 9:41 pm 48. Moogie:

Marie Claude – I am, in a way, an admirer or Friedrich Hayek, via Milton Friedman. I’m certainly not an adept. I do have a special interest in Vienna, though, and I find it rather interesting that #45, Eric, posts a link to the Gates of Vienna website directly under yours.

Here’s my little amateur blog: http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/profiles/blogs/america-a-culture-of-freedom

Apr 29, 2009 - 10:28 pm 49. sheesh:

32. Laura:
I get my news from Fox. I listed to talk radio. I no longer engage in debate with liberals or befriend them. I am doing whatever I can to boycott liberal bias wherever I encounter it.

And this is what you base your thinking on . . .

http://www.buzzfeed.com/endswell/100-days-for-obama-100-days-of-fox-news-hatin-3f2

You have no right to an opinion. That’s right, you heard me. You don’t deserve to vote.

Apr 30, 2009 - 5:17 am 50. Marie Claude:

Moogie thanks, I’ll have a look to it soon

yeah, I noticed # 45 just after my comment, umm, does he want me to interfer in Fofana’s trial ?

he should send his link to the EU parliament

about capitalism going mad, I found an interesting blog

http://blogs.ft.com/capitalismblog/

and a funny daily show where french minister of finances is better inspired than Obama to make gifts

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=225151&title=Intro—French-Finance-Minister

Apr 30, 2009 - 6:01 am 51. Moogie:

Marie Claude: Thanks for the links. Good blog about capitalism.

Apr 30, 2009 - 9:14 am 52. Kathy:

I recently found a movie on pay per view that I had never seen advertised. It was Ghost Town starring Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni among others. It was one of those rare good movies that is well written and has a wonderful moral story. Another gem that was never heard of was Stranger Than Fiction starring Will Farrel. Same thing. It’s just too bad that those types of movies are not given any advertising and go unnoticed unless you happen upon them on TV. There are some good writers and produers out there making movies with great stories that promote positive values and the fact that they actually got produced gives me hope. In addition, in the newest area of entertainment, the web, a group of conservative people in the movie/TV business (there are quite a few of them) have formed a company to produce various series for their web channel. It is strictly a G-rated channel and all content must adhere to that. It is called channelblu.com You can view their site which also includes bluautomotive.com and blugotvideo.com. They are working on finalizing some details of technical nature but will formally launch soon. They hope that they will be a destination for people looking for good, quality entertainment that everyone of all ages can enjoy.

Apr 30, 2009 - 3:25 pm 53. Delia:

How’d I miss this one, Andy?????????

Great post and I caught you on Fox today! You did great (((props)))!

God bless you and thank you for speaking your message loud and clear.

Apr 30, 2009 - 4:42 pm 54. Robohobo:

“. . .it would put forward an image of man as our founders knew him to be, flawed and sinful yet capable of striving toward dignity and salvation through self-reliance and sacrifice.”

Like Eastwood’s character in “Grand Torino”? Here is the key, let your pocketbook do your protesting. If you find something offensive on TV, don’t watch it. If a books author has distasteful political leaning, don’t buy their books. If a movie has actors with repugnant political philosophies or a theme that is Leftists or anti-freedom, don’t pay your money to see it.

May 1, 2009 - 1:12 pm 55. Klavan On The Culture » Toward A New American Culture : Comfortable Life:

[...] Read the original post:

May 1, 2009 - 3:43 pm 56. Francis W. Porretto:

“If artists guided by this principle begin to create, if reviewers guided by it write reviews, if foundations give us grants and awards, if investors give us the funding we need, then the cultural infra-structure of the left will collapse of the rot and corruption of its bad ideas.”

Not without another, critical element.

A culture forms and flourishes because a communications medium of some sort unites the people who participate in it with their compatible values and norms. The scope of the medium will determine the size of the culture; the bandwidth of the medium will determine how quickly it solidifies and spreads.

The current, statist culture owns the mainstream media, which, as Mr. Klavan has observed, protect the culture and the values and norms it promotes. To form a New American Counterculture will require the exploitation, intellectually and artistically, of a communications medium of equal or greater scope and bandwidth. What would that be?

The key factor no one has adequately addressed is money.

Talk radio, as much good as it’s done, doesn’t have the scope to propel a national culture. It functions well at the local level, but apart from the Rush Limbaugh phenomenon, which others have attempted to match with no success, it offers little prospect.

The Internet has been conservatives’ great hope, but it, too, has limitations. Up to now no artistically applicable model has arisen through which money could be made in decent quantities via the Internet. Again, there have been some stirring success stories — Amazon is the most prominent — but these don’t appear imitable by a cultural entrepreneur.

Revenue to a non-artistic patron is the logistic support the arts have always required. Most artistic and expressive efforts need to be supported by commercial enterprises; they can’t gain enough revenue on their own hook to be self-sustaining. A model for making money through cultural and intellectual dissemination on our chosen medium must emerge before any thrust there, however well meant, can be sustained.

The mainstream media have sustained themselves financially by offering advertisers what they crave: broad scope, high bandwidth, the ability to tailor their advertising to local needs, and large numbers of eyeballs to view it. If we can counterstrike through talk radio and the Internet, it will be because some bright fellow concocts a revenue-generating technique suitable to those media, compatible with the offerings we hope to promote, which will appeal at least as strongly to prospective supporters as what our opponents have to offer.

Is anyone even working on such a thing?

May 1, 2009 - 4:42 pm 57. Daniel Crandall:

I’m glad to see so many people agreeing with Mr. Klavan’s point.

Howard R. (#24), You and Andrew would agree on much. The “New American Culture” as he calls it. This is clear when Andrew describes it as “… a culture [that] would reflect and uplift the values and perspectives that made the west and America the greatest and freest places on the globe; it would put forward an image of man as our founders knew him to be, flawed and sinful yet capable of striving toward dignity and salvation through self-reliance and sacrifice.”

Clearly, Andrew is not asking for “an entirely new set of cultural values be built from whole cloth.”

Given how far the Culture has slipped into anti-American, Statist promoting nonsense returning to what made the West and America “the greatest and freest places on the globe” would be “new” to many people.

This is something that I’ve been blogging about at both my blog linked above, and at Modern Conservative here and here.

May 1, 2009 - 4:54 pm 58. Daniel Crandall:

Robohobo, your prescriptions are entirely negative. Don’t buy, don’t buy, don’t buy. That’s all well and good, but it falls woefully short of what must actually be done. One million Americans who refuse to buy tickets to the next America trashing movie is only about 0.3% of 300 Million people that, roughly speaking, makes up the American population. People who understand the principles of ordered liberty, on which America was founded, must provide alternatives to the Statist nonsense the current Culture promotes.

As I wrote at Modern Conservative, folks “need to bear down and get back to work on the Culture. Write stories. Create Art. Report the news. Make movies. Teach the young. Perform plays. Criticize intelligently. As we conservatives do that work, many leaders will emerge, and America will be put back on the Right track.” I need to stop throwing stones at what I don’t like (Christians have been doing that for years, concerning Hollywood, and see where that’s got them). I need to work on creating what I want to see.

May 1, 2009 - 5:06 pm 59. Liberty is better than slavery: Andrew Klavan and YAF Student Videos « Retractable Horns & Tail:

[...] Late in April, Andrew Klavan wrote a wonderfully erudite piece about culture and the media entitled Toward a New American Culture. Klavan begins his analysis by noting: For many years, conservatives have been complaining about [...]

May 3, 2009 - 3:07 pm 60. Micha Elyi:

How many video games with left-wing, collectivist, surrender-America themes have made it big?

May 3, 2009 - 6:21 pm 61. Hot News » Media Bistro:

[...] Few Saturday Morning Freelance Writing Jobs : Freelance Writing Jobs for Web and Print…Klavan On The Culture » Toward A New American Culture…Myst for iPhone Checks in from 1993 at 727MB – Mediabistro.com | Apple Secrets…NYC Event Tonight: [...]

May 4, 2009 - 8:10 pm

Write a Comment

Name:	(required, displayed)
Email:	(required, not publicized)
URL:	(optional, displayed)
Comments: